Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

Outlines an illuminating and urgent argument for the need to rethink animal welfare

Presents a simple but useful new way of looking at animal welfare

Defines good welfare as animals' being healthy and having what they want

Focuses on science and on fully appreciating the critical role animals play in human welfare

Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

Description

Renowned authority Marian Stamp Dawkins' new work presents an illuminating and urgent argument for the need to rethink animal welfare. In the vein of Temple Grandin's work, Dawkins explains that this welfare must be made to work in practice to have any effect, and cannot be tinged by anthropomorphism and claims of animal consciousness, which lack firm empirical evidence and are often freighted with controversy and high emotions. Instead, animal-welfare efforts must focus on science and on fully appreciating the critical role animals play in human welfare. With growing concern over such issues as climate change and food shortages, how we treat those animals on which we depend for survival needs to be put squarely on the public agenda. Dawkins seeks to do this by
offering a more complete understanding of how animals help us. In the end, it is human self-interest that will drive changes in our treatment of animals. Taking positions that might surprise and will certainly challenge animal lovers, Dawkins presents a persuasive argument for why animals truly matter.

Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

Table of Contents

To come.

Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

Author Information

Marian Stamp Dawkins is Professor of Animal Behavior and Mary Snow Fellow in Biological Sciences, Somerville College, Oxford University. She was awarded the 2009 Association for the Study of Animal Behavior medal for contributions to animal behavior.

Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

Reviews and Awards

"[H]er deep knowlege of animal behavior research ... make for very interesting reading."
--Environmental Ethics

"(An) important work ... She butts heads with the 'warm and fuzzy' school of animal welfare in this concise and well-researched call for a new way of making the concern for animal welfare a part of the human decision-making process." - Booklist

Featured in the Quarterly Review of Biology.

"Why Animals Matter is a scholarly and accessible account of the complicated link between human interests and animal welfare." --Metapsychology Online Reviews

Why Animals Matter

Animal Consciousness, Animal Welfare, and Human Well-being

Marian Stamp Dawkins

From Our Blog

There is an urgent argument for the need to rethink animal welfare, untinged by anthropomorphism and claims of animal consciousness, which lack firm empirical evidence and are often freighted with controversy and high emotions. With growing concern over such issues as climate change and food shortages, how we treat those animals on which we depend for survival needs to be put squarely on the public agenda. Marian Stamp Dawkins seeks to do this by offering a more complete understanding of how animals help us.